A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon. Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Combining the pyrotechnical genius that made "Kafka on the Shore" and "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" international bestsellers, with a surprising infusion of heart, Murakami has produced one of his most enchanting fictions yet.

About the Author

Haruki Murakami is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, including "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World", which won the prestigious Tanizaki Prize.

JAY RUBIN is a professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University, where he has employed the pedagogical techniques contained in Making Sense of Japanese "as infrequently as possible." He has authored Injurious to Public Morals: Writers and the Meiji State and Haruki Murakami and the Music ofWords, edited Modern Japanese Writers, and translated Soseki Natsume's Sanshiro and The Miner and Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, and After the Quake (Knopf and Harvill, 2002).

Praise For After Dark…

“After Dark [is] hypnotically eerie, sometimes even funny, but most of all, it's [a book] that keeps ratcheting up the suspense.”—The Washington Post Book World"After Dark is a streamlined, hushed ensemble piece. . . . Standing above the common gloom, Murakami detects phosphorescence everywhere, but chiefly in the auras around people, which glow brightest at night and when combined." —The New York Times Book Review“Murakami is masterful with symbolism. . . . Night . . . can't blacken the ever-shifting shutter speeds of Murakami's cockeyed Kodak. . . . It is straight-ahead jazz with a quiet grace.” —The Los Angeles Times Book Review"A bittersweet novel that will satisfy the most demanding literary taste. . . . Murakami's fiction reminds us that the world is broad, that myths are universal-and that while we sleep, the world out there is moving in mysterious and unpredictable ways." —The San Francisco Chronicle“Hypnotically eerie, sometimes even funny, but most of all, it’s [a book] that keeps ratcheting up the suspense.” —The Washington Post Book World "After Dark is a gripping dream. . . . In Murakami's hands, hope is nothing more nor less than a deep, cleansing breath." —The Boston Globe“What you’ll love: The book’s spare yet eerily atmospheric scenes will fester under your skin, poking at your equilibrium long after you’ve finished reading.” —The Washington Post“There’s a dreamlike quality to Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing new novel, [where] amid the alienation are flickers of hopefulness springing from seemingly random, serendipitous human interactions and connections. . . . Like a latter-day Walker Percy or Albert Camus, Murakami raises questions about perception and existence [and] captures the palpable loneliness and essential unfathomability at the heart of modern life.” —The Christian Science Monitor“This strange, mesmerizing, spell-binding, voyeuristic novel is impossible to put down.” —The Providence Journal“A metaphysical mystery. . . . After Dark deftly explores existentialist notions of purpose, control, and identity.” —Elle“Gripping. . . . Creepy!” —Wired "In After Dark, night seems to be where Murakami was headed all along. . . . He has a natural curiosity about people, a belief that they contain wonders, perhaps none so great as the capacity for human connection." —Newsday